1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is concerned with tapes such as header tapes for a curtain or the like, and more particularly it relates to an apparatus for coating the header tape and a method for coating the header tape.
2. Description of the Related Art
Header tapes are attached to the upper ends of a curtain, or other hanging material, to receive hooks for hanging the curtain and to form pleats in the curtain or gather it.
The curtain header tape which the present invention is concerned with uses a hook and loop fastener system to affix the curtain in position on a rail. The header tape is provided with a loop type fastener for engaging with a hook type fastener located on, for example, a curtain hook.
Hook and loop fastener have been used in systems for hanging curtains. In one such system, described in EP-A-612 493, a strip of loop material is attached to the top of the curtain. The curtain hooks, for hanging the curtain from a rail, have a plate-like surface with hooks molded on it for engagement with the loops of the header tape. These systems are particularly useful for industrial purposes where curtains are to be removed frequently or with the minimum of effort.
However, the problem with using such loop material is that the loops need to be fixed into the header tape so that they do not pull out during continual use. A solution to this problem is to coat the side of the header tape opposite to the looped side with an adhesive which will secure the loops on place so as to stabilize the looped surface. This has the problem that it makes the header tape very stiff and makes it very hard to gather or pleat the header tape and hence the curtain if the user so wishes.
A solution to this is that since the loop material is restricted to be provided in certain discrete spaced apart regions of the header tape, these regions are coated with adhesive. Such a header tape is awkward to manufacture because of the difficulty in selecting to coat only the loop regions in the coating operation.